Taking insurance into mind

Take care: a well maintained bike and focus on what you're doing are just as important as insurance.

The Occupational Health and Safety Act has certainly changed our thinking in meeting our “duty of care”, and understanding “responsibilities” in the work place, placing duties on manufacturers and suppliers, work place management and workers alike.

It is common place to have a disclaimer on how products and equipment are to be used in a safe manner with limited risk to health and safety. Employers are to provide for employees, so far as is reasonably practicable a work place without risk to health and safety. Employees are asked to take reasonable care for themselves and others who may be affected by their acts or emission in the work place.

Welfare is also a major consideration as part of the Act’s intention. There are Work Place insurance premiums that are required to be paid and like most insurance policies claim and no claim bonus or penalties apply to employers that keep accident free.

Cycling insurance is a consideration for the protection of prized the asset, full carbon bike and wheels that can equate a third of the cost of a new car. Insurance cover for your bike can be part of home and contents or a stand alone policy. Most insurance policies allow for your bike being damaged or stolen. Most cycling associations have insurance as part of membership.

If you want to find out more, I suggest you go to a general insurance broker or to one or more (more is better) insurance providers direct, be sure to read their Product Disclosure Statements (PDS).

For my thinking there are many more aspects to consider and most insurance policies are to cover the inevitable event and how to recoup costs outlaid but not the person. How we look after the equipment we use and how we respect the environment in which we spend our time is an valuable insurance. This may be seen as good plain common sense but a review of most if not all accidents will reveal that at some point common sense was forgotten and focus on the task at hand had a momentary loss of concentration.

Simple things to consider:

Is your bike in a good road worthy condition, tyres in reasonable condition and pressure for the speed you are choosing to ride or the hills to descend and corners you wish to take at top speed?

Is your helmet in peak condition and kept clean and stored in a cool dry sun free location and fits your head?

Where you place your self on the road making your actions predictable allowing yourself to be seen with clothing and lighting alike is insurance.

There are so many contributing aspects in cycling that are our responsibility to take due care of and for, that are good insurance.

Regularly washing our bikes can reveal any changes in the frame structure and wheels if undertaken in a caring manner and keep an eye on wear and tear of components such as brakes. Taking into consideration the people you share the road with and at what times of the day can reduce the risks considerably.

While not all these aspects will stop accidents they certainly go a long way for us to develop an attitude and respect of our own safety and that of others who we share the road with.

Looking forward to seeing you on the road soon God willing.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 3rd, 2011 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Post navigation

One Response to Taking insurance into mind

Referring to this comment, “Most insurance policies allow for your bike being damaged or stolen.” I think you might be a touch misleading there. Most home and contents insurance polices from what I have seen and I have see quite a few do not cover bicycles (sporting goods) in use so damage is not likely to be covered. As to theft, again care in understanding the coverage is important. It may not be as clear cut as you are suggesting.

The best advice in my view is to ALWAYS read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) very carefully and understand exactly what coverage you are getting before purchasing the product.